A/N: To those that have already read this chapter- there's an edit at the end! Please read it- it's important!
Enigma
By TeriyakiPrinces
Rating: Teen+ Audiences, but whatever.
Warnings for the chapter: Science talk. This is Teen+ so expect some bad language.
Disclaimer: Not mine. To see original content, look up Hiromu Arakawa
A/N:Canon is here! Enjoy this once in a lifetime double-update, because it ain't gonna happen anytime soon, if ever again.
Some character development in this chapter. I hope the chapter doesn't seem too choppy, but if it does tell me and I'll try to fix it.
Thank you so much to the people who read, followed, favorited, and especially reviewed the first three chapters. Do you guys have any questions you'd like answered? Review with them!
Please, if you have absolutely any suggestions or criticism, express it, even if it's bad, but please also explain your view if criticizing- I can't fix what I don't know is broken.
Reviews are welcomed with open mind and open arms.
Gaia's new home was... strange. There were some key differences in this world that she had perceived from her extended stay here. For one thing, the air felt different- and it wasn't just the difference in climate that bothered her, either. It was as if something foul seeped up from the ground, leaving a bad taste in her mouth. When she inquired about it, Granny Pinako simply looked sadly at her and told her that Amestris was witness to a lot of bloodshed.
Resembool was a small town to the South-East of Central, on the banks of a river called Rain. Most of the farms in the town proper were in the business of wool production- resulting in many, many sheep.
The town was mostly comprised of a train station, the town hall, an open air market during the milder months of the year, a small grocery shop, a butcher shop, and a postal office. The population was a middling 2,000 occupants, most of which congregated once a month for a town meeting, or something many agreed was a play of catch-up with gossip.
That was, of course, how she remembered about the Dragon's Pulse and how Father's dark manipulations had tainted the Xingese' perception of chi, or natural energy, running through the world.
Which, understandably, had her intrigued enough to begin a meditation regimen every morning to see if it at all helped with her perception of the mysterious energy she was already beginning to sense and use.
She took to not wearing shoes, and if she did she wore light sandals on the dirt and gravel roads in and out of town. The connection of bare skin to the earth, the floor even, helped her feel more grounded, made her feel strangely connected to this world.
Along with her barefootedness, Gaia was often perceived as, well, odd. She had strange quirks and ways of speaking, ranging from sounding ridiculously masculine to pulling her hand from the nape of her neck upward, as if she was used to having short cropped hair, to abruptly correcting her ever-slumped posture when she was thinking, as if someone had poked her back harshly.
But she was extremely useful to have around, and kept good company, so most of the rumors and talk that spread about her was mostly who she was visiting that day, or what her hourly rates were for some alchemy to fix this or that.
Her feet were sore and bruised for the first month without shoes, with her constant abuse of their soles, and her crying out at stubbing her toes became commonplace at the Rockbell home.
She often curses in another language, maybe two, and sometimes even forgets to switch back to Amestrian after a nightmare or muttered rant. Pinako and Winry have no experience with other languages, as most in Amestris do not, but they never seemed inclined to correct Gaia when she didn't notice, and for that she is grateful.
When Winry asked to be taught one of them, the one that's softer with a lot of vowels, Gaia is stumped. She quickly collects herself and suggests Winry learn the one with more harsh sounds, as it'll be easier for her to pronounce, and the grammar is more similar to Germ- Amestrian.
The younger girl doesn't mention her slip-up, and Gaia begins to hand-write a workbook with whatever she remembered she had learned in first and second grade.
After two years in one place, Gaia had become antsy. She was constantly expecting the Elrics to come knocking down their doorstep, and to be dragged into the chaos that she had obsessed about as a fifteen year old. Now, she was almost 19 years old and becoming stir-crazy in expectation of another laborious summer season. So, she had saved up some money from her escapades in fixing anything broken in and around Resembool town proper, and made her way by train to Central City. On her small, week long vacation, she would pick up some materials for Winry and Pinako, as well as use the city library to expand some of her knowledge of the country she had been calling home for nearly two and a half years. She would also, of course, buy new books of her interest, and maybe even grab a nice long novel to read.
She stayed clear of all military personnel and the large palace complex in the center of the city, not wanting to stir up any misunderstandings, even after two and a half years, and took to wearing a pair of sunglasses to shield her distinct eyes.
On her way back from Central, she had a bit of a layover in East City when she heard two blue-clothed guards murmuring behind where she sat waiting for her train to arrive.
"Did you hear? That criminal from Central got to another State Alchemist."
"God, that monster's in East City!? Who's the poor bastard he got to?"
"Fullmetal. He's alive, but apparently he's in pretty bad shape."
She ran into the yellow house after getting a ride from the train station by Otto, dropped her things in the foyer with a loud clump, and nearly shouted for Winry, when her voice filtered out of the living room, waxing poetic about the virtues of automail.
"Oh my, how wonderful automail prosthetics are!"
Gaia quickly calmed, the sentence jogging her memory. She had rushed home as fast as possible, and was prepared to run the way from the train station to the yellow house to warn the Rockbells about the impending visit, but it seemed that they had already gotten here.
She smiled as a blonde boy ran past her in a blur, and walked into the living room to see Winry fuming as she cleaned up her tools. Granny, who she could have sworn was in there, was nowhere to be seen.
"Heya." At the one-of-a-kind greeting, Winry squealed and launched herself at the taller girl, and was caught in a steady grip.
"I'm so sorry we didn't come to get you! I completely forgot you were coming back today, and Ed and Al were here for the last three days, and I've told you how crazy things get around here when those two are-" She was cut off by a sharp laugh.
"Breathe, Winry. I understand. Otto gave me a ride, but I could have run as well. I heard what happened in East City, I don't fault you for doting on your boys."
"Wait, what exactly happened there? Ed said they got in a big fight, but I don't know much else." Large blue eyes stared up at the girl-woman, pleading.
"Hah! I think that's for the brothers to tell you. Now, where's Granny? I got her the materials she requested, and I got some new manuals for you too, you little engineering otaku, you." Winry flushed at Gaia's wide grin, knowing she had heard most of the conversation she and Ed had.
"Granny's with Major Armstrong, an Alchemist who came with Ed and Al, probably." Gaia's grin took on a sinister look at the mention of the older Alchemist.
"I'll leave you to your work, then. I've got a few Alchemists to exploit." She could almost see Gaia's hands being rubbed together. She almost felt bad for Ed, Armstrong, and... oh God, Al.
Gaia had been told a highly edited story of the Elric brothers about a month into her stay with Winry and Pinako, when she had mustered the courage to ask about the two golden boys in the pictures in the hallway.
She'd been told they had taken the two boys in after their mother passed away from sickness, after which they had gone off to train with an Alchemy Master in Dublith. When they returned, she had been told, they were involved in an accident in which Edward lost a leg and an arm.
Which meant that her observant sister would quickly find out that Al did not, in fact, have a flesh and blood body. Whether or not Ed put him back together in time did not matter anymore.
She could sniff this type of stuff out from a mile away, it seemed. Last month she had managed to save Otto's barn from collapsing through intuition alone, just by catching the signs of a termite infestation a bit early.
What Winry had not picked up, though, was Gaia's look of sadness at the recounting of the events, and the sidelong glance Pinako had sent her as she raised her arm to her right rib.
Gaia knew well enough that Granny Pinako expected that she had attempted the ultimate taboo, human transmutation. And she had to concede that that was a legitimate suspicion to have.
She had lost a lot of people in this world, and her heart clenched every time she thought of them, so she could not say in good conscience that if she were given the chance to return to a world where her family was still alive, she would not give up another part of herself in a taboo ritual to reach that plane of existence.
The first thing that grabbed Edward's attention about the woman in front of him were her eyes. He had never seen that shade of green eyes before. Heck, he didn't think he'd ever seen green eyes, period. He could have noted how tall she was, because at nearly nine inches taller than him, she stood at 5'8" tall. He could have noticed that she was barefoot, or the large, ropy, silvery scar extending from somewhere around her knee, which strangely enough she didn't cover completely by her brown pants. But no, the first thing he sees of her are her green eyes that seemed to glow in the sunlight.
He is about a meter away from her, and she sweeps her eyes across his form, as if appraising him.
He began to prepare himself to rebuff her statement when she opened her mouth to say how-
"Young."
-he was?
Ed's eyes widened in surprise at her words, but not to seem caught off-guard, he scowled and took a defensive pose.
"You've got a problem with my age, hag!?"
"No. It just never really clicked that you were Winry's age. With how she goes on about you, you'd either think you were the devil incarnate or a middle aged man."
Ed could feel his face heat up, and- BAH! She wasn't even smirking, dammit!